The purpose of this article consists in presenting the results of four studies dealing with the construction and validation of a new instrument measuring elderly individuals' motivation toward significant life activities, namely the Echelle de Motivation pour les Personnes âgées (EMPA). The EMPA is formed of four subscales assessing intrinsic motivation, self‐determined extrinsic motivation, nonself‐determined extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. These four motivations are assessed in six important life domains, as determined by the elderly: health, religion, information, leisure, interpersonal relations, and biological needs. Overall, results reveal that the EMPA has adequate levels of internal consistency and temporal stability. In addition, the validity of the scale was supported by: (1) a simplex‐like pattern of correlations among the four subscales, (2) significant correlations among the EMPA and interviewers' evaluation of the elderly's motivation, and finally by (3) results from t‐tests which showed, in line with Deci and Ryan's (1985) cognitive evaluation theory, that elderly individuals who perceive themselves to be highly self‐determined display higher levels of intrinsic motivation and self‐determined extrinsic motivation, but lower levels of nonself‐determined extrinsic motivation and amotivation than individuals who report low levels of self‐determination. The present set of results provides preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the EMPA. Thus, this scale seems ready to be used in research on aging. To this end, suggestions with respect to its use in future research are proposed.